How to Stop Anxiety

How to stop anxiety when it becomes a habit? The more anxious you get about certain thoughts or events the more inclined to negative thinking you become. This negative thinking habit tends to feed the anxiety as you begin to expect and anticipate negative outcomes, problems and difficulties. However, habit behaviors can be changed and you truly can overcome anxiety and change that habit pattern. Follow the tips in this anxiety self help article on how to stop anxiety. You can overcome and conquer your anxiety, there will still be times when you will experience some anxiety, we all do, but you can reduce it significantly.

Symptoms of Anxiety

If you experience anxiety, you may find some of the following symptoms occur:

Feeling hot, sweating more
A desire to run away or escape
A feeling of dread like something terrible is about to happen
Racing heart
Shortness of breath
Shakiness
Physical tension
Tiredness or Exhaustion
Low energy

What Anxiety is

Anxiety is fear, it is fed by thinking negative thoughts which fuels the fear and keeps it going. The key is to change your thinking habits. Initially this may simply be in the form of meditation or quietening the mind which is something that also happens easily in hypnosis. We all have fearful thoughts at times, but the key is that the anxious person pays heed to these thoughts and lets them take a prominent place in their mind. A person not inclined to be anxious would push those anxious thoughts aside and give them less attention, less energy. This is again just a habit that has formed.

To read more about how to stop anxiety and what anxiety is click here to go to the Mind website

Control Your Thoughts

You too can become more in control of your thoughts with practice. Mindfulness is precisely this – not attaching too much importance to thoughts and simply observing or witnessing them. Some people seem to have this ability naturally, but it is also something you can learn. Practice focusing your mind only on the task or activity you are doing right now. As you practice you will develop the skill of control over your thoughts. This skill is amazing if you have anxiety or are susceptible to it.

How to Reduce Anxiety Quickly

If you are feeling very anxious and want to calm down as quickly as possible try rinsing your hands in cold water if possible. This helps to focus your mind on something other than the anxiety. Part of the problem with anxiety is that you start to feel anxious about feeling anxious so breaking the cycle is the way to stop it.

Distraction techniques will help too, such as thinking about the taste of a certain food, thinking of a happy memory or playing a song you like. You can also try gentle deep breathing. Start with some full deep breaths and then slow it down to long slow breaths. Try focusing your mind on the feeling of the breath at your nostrils, as you inhale and exhale. Make sure you exhale fully, as when anxious it is common to hold your breath a little. Long terms results will be gained by taking a thorough approach to overcoming your anxiety, so read on for the full 7 steps:

Meditation & hypnosis
Sleep
Physical relaxation
Positive thinking
Exercise
Taking positive action or keeping busy
Grounding (or earthing)

There are changes you can make to your habits and thoughts and using hypnosis or meditation can also help you learn about and implement as to how to stop anxiety controlling your life. Understanding why you are anxious and when it started to become a problem may be useful to understanding what changes you should be making.

For example, sometimes it can be the case that a period of extreme stress results in a sense of lasting anxiety that you cannot seem to shake off. It might be that you have always had a tendency to feel anxious. What is important is that you can change this. Anxiety self help, using meditation or hypnosis along with self care can help you break the cycle.

Does the Rational Mind Help or Hinder?

Our rational thinking mind may battle with negative worrying thoughts and try to keep them at bay, but ultimately there can come about a situation where the negative thoughts are constantly flowing and the rational mind is actively engaging with them and this is not ideal. You may think to yourself, why am I anxious about this or that, when other people don’t seem to have this problem. You can change though, you can reduce anxiety by controlling your thoughts or giving them less attention. It just take a bit of practice. Yes – it is easier said than done, but with practice, practice, practice comes success.

So instead of letting your rational mind run free, take a moment to quieten it. Perhaps go for a walk or sit outside, while you do that focus on letting go of thoughts. With practice this gets quite easy but it is not an instant effect. Once you have this control, you should find that you think in a more rational way when you feel anxious. Then you will find that your mind will offer you positive thoughts and ideas when you feel ill at ease. This is the key to success in overcoming anxiety because until you can slow down and control your thoughts, you are at the mercy of them.

How to Stop Anxiety – 7 Tips

1. Meditation and Hypnosis

Regular use of meditation or hypnosis audios can really help reduce and control anxiety. The reason for this is that you need to gain control of your thoughts and quieten your mind. Hypnosis calms and quietens the mind so effectively that you will with practice, find yourself observing thoughts without getting involved with them, this is a helpful thing to achieve. Another thing you need to do to help alleviate your anxiety is to physically relax because no doubt your anxiety will have caused tensions and possibly aches and tense muscles in your body. In the Help Centre on our website there is a relaxing anxiety reducing hypnosis that you can play right on the page or you can download it.

2. Sleep

Anxiety can make you more tired than you might be otherwise as you are using excess energy. Make sure you get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep makes anxiety worse. Good sleep will help you manage your anxiety effectively. If you are having trouble getting to sleep or waking in the night you can make some changes to your sleeping space to help improve this such as ensuring the room where you sleep is extra comfortable, tidy, and a pleasant place to be. Making sure your bed and pillows are comfortable, Clear away any clutter and get some blackout curtains if light is an issue.

You could also have a little notebook and pen by the bed and if you find yourself worrying or thinking – I must remember this or that, you can make a quick note of it. This can help you go back to sleep. It can make quite a difference. If there are noises that keep you awake try earplugs, there are some lovely soft foam ones you can get which are very comfortable as well as effective at blocking out noise. Finally, don’t forget to have some wind down time before you go to bed.

Please note: if you are experiencing anxiety self help may not be enough it is is severe, so please see your doctor if you are feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts. If you need help click here to go to the charity Mind website

Many people believe that switching electric appliances off at night can help you sleep better. All plugs should be switched off in your bedroom. If possible get a battery operated bedside lamp and alarm clock. Switch off your mobile phone at night before you go to sleep .

3. Relaxation

Take time for relaxation. Have a bubble bath, get a massage, read a good book. Self care is essential when dealing with anxiety. Make some positive changes now, plan some treats, however small, just to take the time to look after you. This is not time wasted – you need this to recover and to stop anxiety.

4. Positive Thinking

You may be in the habit of allowing negative thoughts and expectations to flow through your mind. This is often a habit in people with chronic anxiety. You may also find that you ruminate, especially at night. To overcome these negative habits, try conscious positive thinking. All you need to do is think up some simple statements and repeat them to yourself. For example: “I am calm and in control” or “Everything is okay”. After a while you could up the positivity even more, and get more ambitious with your expectations. It is amazing how simple self talk (which we are all doing a lot of the time) can affect your mood.

5. Exercise

Exercise reduces your stress and anxiety. Take some exercise and you may be amazed at how this positively impacts your anxiety, You can think positive affirmations while exercising. It boosts your confidence too, and this will help lift your self-belief that you can beat this. If you are not used to exercise start with walking or gentle stretches,

6. Take Positive Action or Just Keep Busy

Another method of helping to ease your anxiety is to keep your mind occupied. Be busy and be calm. Keeping your mind is focused and thinking or concentrating can help you to basically forget your anxiety. You can focus and be active, productive and busy so that there is no spare capacity to entertain anxious thoughts – you are just too busy! It helps to plan in advance some activities you can do if you find yourself unexpectedly anxious. So if you are looking at how to stop anxiety, these actions can help break the habit of anxious thinking.

7. Grounding

Have you ever heard of grounding? (Also called earthing). This involves connecting with the Earth to regulate the electricity patterns and levels in the body. We are so disconnected these days from the earth; carpets, plastic soles on shoes all shield us from the natural energy coming from the Earth. This may sound strange if you are unfamiliar with it but the electrical activity in the human body can actually change when we connect with the earth. Try walking barefoot or just lie on the grass in your garden or park and notice the calming effect you get.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks often go hand in hand with anxiety, especially if the anxiety becomes routine. If you have had a panic attack you will know they are quite frightening at first, but they key to beating panic attacks is to learn with practice, to rise above that feeling of fear. Learning to not react with fear takes a lot of the energy out of a panic attack. To find out more on how to cope with and stop panic attacks click here to read our article which has lots of tips for you to try.

Hypnosis Downloads & Meditations

Here are a few suggested titles from our store that can help you take control of anxiety and feel calm. We hope this article on how to stop anxiety has been useful.

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Rachael Eccles Clinical Hypnotherapist

Rachael Eccles is an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist with 19 years experience. She is fully licensed and registered with the GHR GHSC and CNHC.

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